Hospital Story
by Ttestagr
Summary: A little fic done for a small contest between naruhina shippers over at NT. A small outtake from Naruto's stay in the hospital before his fight with Neji.


**Hospital Story**

**By Ttestagr**

**Disclaimer:** I own Naruto... Thats why i'm posting this here...

Hyuuga Hinata sighed as she watched the figure on the bed. It was typical of him; she guessed, to train himself to the point of absolute exhaustion right before the final portion of the exam. Her Naruto-kun would be fighting her cousin in only three days.

She calmed her features as she thought of her cousin. Neji was amazingly skilled; even when compared to their genius clan. She smiled as she thought of his opponent though. If anyone could defeat the genius of the Hyuuga clan it was the young man who inspired her.

He truly was special. She had thought on him often, and studied him whenever the opportunity arose. Even at his worst; when he was last in every category at the academy, he never really despaired. Naruto-kun was very resilient, and never abandoned his dream; impossible as it seemed.

"You will become Hokage one day Naruto-kun" she told the sleeping boy.

Of course, when it didn't even matter she didn't have a problem with her stutter. Hinata grinned wryly to herself; she was well aware of the fact that if conscious, she would not have been able to utter a single uninterrupted sentence. She sighed again as she thought of her 'speech impediment'. She was always horribly nervous and self conscious when she was speaking to Naruto-kun. It was one of the many things that she disliked about herself. Hinata worried so much that she would make a bad impression on the boy; that she would never be able to attain the determination and self resolve that she desperately wanted to emulate.

Which was her problem she supposed; the reason he was her idol and seemed out of her reach for so long. With every advantage; born into a prominent clan with a natural talent that only a bloodline limit could grant, she was a miserable failure. A coward, meek and easily pushed aside. Hinata knew what she wanted, the reason she was drawn to Uzumaki Naruto-kun. An orphan, who was noticeable despised by nearly every soul in their village and almost no talent at all, he still managed to possess all of the qualities that Hinata dreamed of possessing herself. With everything possible against him in his attempt to become the leader of Konoha he never even considered giving up. Even after all of the failures; and considering her time spent in the academy with him she was more than aware that the list of those was every lesson that Iruka-sensei ever gave them; he still always rose up again and pushed toward his goal. She deeply admired her fellow genin for always standing back up when he was knocked back down. She allowed herself a small grin at the thought that now, finally after 8 years of failure and futility, this chuunin exam had finally allowed her to will herself similar qualities to what she saw in Naruto-kun.

The chuunin exam, the event that she hoped would be the turning point in her life. With him watching; for the first time in her young life Hyuuga Hinata had stood her ground. With failure nearly assured after Neji-niisan had neatly closed her tenketsu, she had refused to give up, refused to surrender to her older cousin. She had refused to take the cowards path, the easy way out of the fight. If she was going to lose, she was going to do everything in her power to prevent it. She was not willing to stop; if Neji-niisan had wanted to win he would HAVE to make sure that she wasn't able to continue to fight. Hinata's eyes teared up slightly at her next thought; even with the loss her actions had made her proud of herself. It was just a nice bonus that she had impressed the others present as well, including Naruto-kun!

She thought back on her final moments of consciousness, with her idol hovering above her worry clear on his face. She grinned; she had finally managed to have him notice her. Hinata made a silent vow to keep improving, to make herself into a person that she could respect. She put a hand on Naruto's cheek; when she was the person that she aimed to be, she would see if he would return the affection she had for him.

"How…"

Hinata snatched her hand away when he muttered under his breath. Her face red as a cherry, she felt horrified at the thought that he noticed her hand moments before. White eyes met blue as Naruto opened his eyes, and blinked at her.

"He's strong… how can I win… Hinata" the boy asked her drowsily.

Hinata closed her eyes for a second. She wouldn't run away, she had come this far in her journey of self improvement. She would not fail at the end, at a simple question from the one she admired. She took a breath before she plunged.

"J… Just do your best N… Naruto-kun. Neji-niisan has never had a… any problems because of his talent."

Hinata took another breath. As hard as she found talking at the moment, she would not stop. She would not give the girl who would run at the slightest difficulty that victory. She closed her eyes.

"H… he doesn't have your determination. He's never needed it. I… its his weakness; but I wasn't skilled enough to exploit it. Y… you do though Naruto-kun." She took a final breath before finishing. "You can win Naruto-kun!" she finished quickly.

Opening her eyes, Hinata nearly screamed as she noticed Naruto's eyes were closed again, AND she started to snore. She counted to ten to try to control her frustration; she finally worked up the nerve to talk to him, to cheer him on, and he fell back asleep.

Naruto whispered something in his slumber which stilled the young girl utterly.

"Dankyou… Inata…" Naruto whispered quietly in his sleep.

Not noticing the smile on her face; Hinata gently reached down and placed a small kiss on the ninja's forehead and stood up and turned around towards the door. She looked back for a moment before commenting.

"Sleep well Naruto-kun; don't worry, you will win."

Hinata walked out of the door, back to her own room in the hospital.

**I**

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**3 days later...**

**I**

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"But you know." Naruto told her scratching his head. "I really like people like you!"

Hinata froze at his words. She had admired him for so long, and now finally, she had managed to work up the nerve to speak to him, even to ENCOURAGE him! As Naruto skipped away, Hinata didn't even notice Kiba greet her she was so entwined in her own thoughts. She shook her head and smiled. She really was changing, she thought as she felt something rare. Few were the times when she had reason to feel pride, but this day she felt that the feeling was justified. Hinata had a thought to the future; eventually when she was the woman she wanted to be, she would see what possibilities there were with a certain blue eyed blond.


End file.
